Has BA changed the order of loading passengers? It used to be that any First/Club/Gold/Silver/Bronze were permitted to board first, so on certain routes e.g. Brussels, that meant everyone.

I’ve done a few long and short haul flights in the past couple of weeks all on BA and after children/more time to get on, they now only board First/Club World/Gold/Emerald (long haul) and Club Europe/Gold/Emerald (short haul), then allow the Silver/Bronze on, then load by row numbers.

Is this new? A few of my colleagues have also noticed this and it’s not just Heathrow T3 & T5 but also down route, the latest example was Brussels-Heathrow this afternoon.

It is fairly new, a couple of months maybe. Boarding family/wheelchairs etc then by cabin so theoretically First boards before anyone although so far this is quite hit and miss.

Personally I think this is a good move. I only travel First a few times a year and it was always a scrum to board. When you’ve paid that sort of money, you should be able to board before the masses. The times it has happened it’s been a real pleasure to not have to wait to board if you’re at the gate when it opens.

I also never thought that bronze should have been included in pre-boards, but that’s just a personal thing.

agree completely in that pre-boarding has become too crowded with everyone down to Bronze eligible. However I use to beat the crowds by waiting for the initial priority boarding to clear down, then go through in priority lane. Still, not ideal, I must admit.

Absolutely. With apologies to any Bronzes reading, it certainly dilutes the whole object of priority booking, especially on busy European flights when CE is full. I flew to Nice last week and it was just a bun-fight.

What’s worse is that despite there being a huge queue, they still call out more boarding announcements which seems a bit ridiculous to me.

I don’t think bronze card holders are the problem, there are way too many gold and silver. To gain bronze requires very little flying for most (my wife and daughter got it one year, from a single long haul return flight), so they are not a large group on most flights from what I understand.

On the last domestic flight I took (in April) the priority queue was rather longer than the non-priority queue!

In a like for like comparison, AA is the best queue manager I’ve encountered, very simple and clear process, enforced without exception.

Carriers like AA, who do have excellent priority boarding, have an easier operation as they have a fixed number of premium seats on domestic flights that don’t alter (unlike European business class cabins, with flex curtains altering the number of seats). They are also not checking IDs upon boarding, which makes the flow quicker, and requires fewer staff. Still, the new BA procedures are welcome and seem to be working.

Sorry, can’t agree with you. The fixed number of F seats are a red herring, as there are still lots of different groups with priority boarding, e.g. OWE, OWS, OWR, armed forces and I see as many gate agents as on BA.

It’s not the people booked in business who cause the priority queue to be long on BA, it’s the high amount of gold and silver card holders travelling in eco (and OW equivalents.)

Interesting. I am a Cathay Gold member. On most flights (such as SIN-HKG last week) they let all premium class flyers and all Marco Polo members from green upwards board at once i.e. almost everyone.

However, returning from HND earlier this year there were 3 queues: F/J/MP Diamond, other MP plus PE, everyone else… I was a bit miffed because it takes me a fair amount of spending to get gold status, but there doesn’t seem to be much advantage – silver gets you in the lounge and green gets you the same level of priority.

Perhaps I am alone but my preference is to be one of the last to board regardless of the cabin in which I fly. I don’t join the boarding queue until it is almost completely diminished. Why add to the congestion at the gate, and one doesn’t arrive at the destination any earlier. I realise that the scrum is often to secure overhead bin space near one’s designated seat, but that is is separate issue never adequately addresses by the airlines.

Perhaps I am alone but my preference is to be one of the last to board regardless of the cabin in which I fly. I don’t join the boarding queue until it is almost completely diminished. Why add to the congestion at the gate, and one doesn’t arrive at the destination any earlier. I realise that the scrum is often to secure overhead bin space near one’s designated seat, but that is is separate issue never adequately addresses by the airlines.

Agreed. BA inconsistent often. Now in GLA there’s often no Fast track so that little bit of avoiding the scrum is taken away from those of us who are travelling often and maintain BAEC Gold cards. Since BA have monopoly on the GLA/LHR route they get away with whatever. Another “f*ck you” to its loyal customers who spend ££££s each year !

Tinp0tTaipan – I lived in Hkg for a few years until recently, and was a regular on Cathay to/from Shanghai – like you say nearly everyone on those flights had some status or other, and I could never figure out why were we all lining up to board just to run into economy? OK there was always the couple of idiots with the oversized hand luggage who wanted the locker space but as you say no advantage what so ever on some of these flights for the boarding procedure.

Tinp0tTaipan – I lived in Hkg for a few years until recently, and was a regular on Cathay to/from Shanghai – like you say nearly everyone on those flights had some status or other, and I could never figure out why were we all lining up to board just to run into economy? OK there was always the couple of idiots with the oversized hand luggage who wanted the locker space but as you say no advantage what so ever on some of these flights for the boarding procedure.